WHAT do you think is the best way to relax? Listening to music, sipping a glass of wine or putting your feet up with a cup of tea perhaps?

Well, no. Recent research reveals that a book works better and faster than any of these.

In fact it takes only six minutes of reading to reduce stress levels by two-thirds.

Psychologists at the University of Sussex say this is because the mind is distracted by being taken into another world, which eases tensions in muscles and the heart.

Well, I'm no cognitive neuro-psychologist but I am a very happy bookworm, so I'm not surprised that tests showed reading reduced stress levels by 68 per cent, compared with only 42 per cent after a walk.

In the same week that this research was published, I read about a new machine - a cross between an industrial photocopier and printer - that churns out books at the rate of 105 pages a minute.

The customer can press a button and watch the book of their choice being created.

Once the cover is run off, the pages are printed, collated and glued. After being trimmed to A4 size, the finished book pops out like passport shots in a photo booth.

This is not some wacky invention for the future - Blackwell's in Charing Cross Road already has a machine - but I won't be using this service as I am now a Born Again Public Library User.

Over the years, the three-for-two offers in book shops and cheap websites have enticed me, like many of you I'm sure, into buying, rather than borrowing, books.

Lately, however, I've had to find titles in a hurry for a course I'm doing at Brunel University, and on every occasion our borough libraries has come up trumps.

Libraries are definitely more relaxed places these days. People are allowed to speak and there's even coffee served in some.

I hope Hillingdon Council doesn't follow the lead of Gloucestershire County Council, which has introduced piped music to libraries and has, understandably, had many complaints.

My favourite was from a sniffy Oxford University lecturer, who took exception to trying to concentrate on her work to a background of Sugababes. * Last word: Long before the clocks went back, Christmas goodies were filling the shelves.